To better understand what happened in Libya, you must first understand the context in which it took place. Ambassador Stevens was probably at least as valuable as a U.S. intelligence asset/operative as he was a diplomat. He operated the Iran desk early in his career and eventually became one of our top go to experts on all things Iran. Mr. Stevens served in countries throughout the mid-east before eventually settling in Syria for several years. He was well known and respected in the region. He also lived in Washington D.C. for several years while serving as the Director of Multilateral Nuclear and Security Affairs. His little black book with the contact numbers for the good and bad actors and their agents had become pretty extensive; but heres where the plot thickens. It appears that Mr. Stevens might not have initially entered Libya to stop the flow of weapons, but to help funnel them under the direction of higher ups in the Obama regime. He was tasked with coordinating, overseeing and facilitating the movement of the rebel fighters from across North Africa through eastern Libya.

The troops were armed with weapons from Gaddafis extensive hidden arsenals and spirited to staging areas in the Syrian refugee camps in Turkey. If this administration had needed to go to Congress over the last year and ask for money and troops to start a war with Russia, on Syrian soil do you think they would have gotten it? Not a chance, the electorate would never have put up with it, but, this administrations handlers didnt need to. They just got creative. Does Iran-Contra come to mind, anyone? All they have done thus far is ask for a few paltry millions for administrative costs to support the Syrian Freedom Fighters.

21
posted on 10/10/2012 1:07:24 PM PDT
by crosslink
(Moderates should play in the middle of a busy street)

Back during the Cold War there was a Russian pilot who flew one of their leading edge MiG fighters into an airbase in Japan and defected.

The Russians really put on a saber rattling show to get the Japanese to return the plane. They finally did, but not after they had taken it completely apart and invited the Americans to take photos of everything.

Among other things, we discovered that the Ruskies were still using vacuum tube technology. Their jig was up not long after that incident.

If the Turks are still our allies, they'd do the same thing.

23
posted on 10/10/2012 1:16:47 PM PDT
by Vigilanteman
(Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)

Could be military specialists (maybe in civilian dress) sent in advance of Russia entering the conflict. That would probably begin with an airlift. This would be to counter NATO reinforcing Turkey. If Syria falls it endangers Iran which is not in the interest of Russia. But this is all pure speculation.

24
posted on 10/10/2012 1:22:17 PM PDT
by Brad from Tennessee
(A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)

http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=294972 Turkish jets on Wednesday forced a Syrian passenger plane to land at Ankara airport on suspicion that it may be carrying weapons and seized military communication equipments and parts that could be used in missiles. An Airbus A320 coming from Moscow was intercepted by F16 jets as it entered Turkish airspace and escorted to the capital's Esenboğa Airport. The station said authorities grounded the plane on suspicion that it was carrying heavy weapons. As a result of the inspections, Turkey found military communication equipments and seized parts that could be used in missiles. The plane was sent to Damascus with 37 passengers and crew. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said in an interview with a Turkish network late on Wednesday that the intelligence suggested that the Syrian plane was carrying non-civilian cargo and banned material. He said the plane was forced to land because of information that it may be carrying "certain equipment in breach of civil aviation rules." The move comes amid heightened tensions between Turkey and Syria, which have been exchanging artillery fire across the volatile border in the past week. Davutoğlu said Turkey was within its rights under international law to investigate civilian planes suspected to be carrying military materials. Turkish foreign minister noted that whatever the inspectors find in the plane, Turkey would act in line with the international law and declined to unveil the source of the intelligence obtained by Turkey. The head of Turkey's civil aviation agency Bilal Ekşi said there were 37 passengers and crew on board the plane. According to Moscow's Vnukovo airport, flight RB442 left for Damascus at 3:26 p.m. Moscow time (1126 GMT). It wasn't immediately clear whether this was the plane that was intercepted. Davutoğlu said the passengers were being treated "hospitably" and given meals while the plane's cargo was being inspected. Officials in the Syrian information and foreign ministries could not immediately be reached for comment. Earlier on the day, Turkish authorities declared the Syrian airspace to be unsafe and were stopping Turkish aircraft from flying over the civil-war torn country, the Foreign Ministry said. Turkish plane that had already taken off for Saudi Arabia made a detour and landed at the Adana airport. Davutoğlu said the Syrian airspace has increasingly become unsafe with unabated clashes on the ground as he clarified why Turkish authorities banned Turkish civilian planes to use the Syrian airspace. Observers claimed that Turkey made the decision to avoid any similar reprisal from the Syrian side against Turkish planes. When asked if the plane was carrying arms, Davutoğlu declined to comment and said the material was banned to be carried by civilian cargoes. "We are determined to control weapons transfers to a regime that carries out such brutal massacres against civilians. It is unacceptable that such a transfer is made using our airspace," Davutoğlu added. Davutoğlu said Turkey was within its rights to investigate planes suspected to be carrying military materials and that the plane would be allowed to continue if it was found to be clean. He declined to comment on what the banned materials might be. He said Turkey would continue to investigate Syrian civilian aircraft using its airspace. Davutoğlu also dismissed claims suggesting that Russian President Vladimir Putin delayed his visit due to deepening divisions between Turkey and Russia over the festering Syrian conflict. He said he doesnt think the landed Syrian plane will any way harm Turkish-Russian relations. He said Putins schedule was already a tentative one and that officials fixed his date in November. Earlier Wednesday, Turkey's military chief vowed to respond with more force to any further shelling from Syria, keeping up the pressure on its southern neighbor a day after NATO said it stood ready to defend Turkey. Gen. Necdet Özel was inspecting troops who have been put on alert along the 910-kilometer (566-mile) border with Syria after a week of cross-border artillery and mortar exchanges escalated tensions between the neighbors, sparking fears of a wider regional conflict. Turkey has reinforced the border with artillery guns and also deployed more fighter jets to an air base close to the border region since shelling from Syria killed five Turkish civilians last week.

There is a very good autobiography by the MiG pilot, Viktor Belenko, who defected. The Japanese allowed the CIA to take the plane apart, ship it to Wright-Patterson AFB, reassemble it, analyze every component, and then return it to the Soviets, in crates. The assessment of the vacuum-tube technology created a long-running controversy within the intelligence community. Some though it was mainly indicative of the backwardness of Soviet technology, but others believed that it was a clever, low-cost way to get around the performance sensitivity of micro-electronic components to extremes of temperature, altitude, and speed. Think of a similar comparison between an AK-47 and an M-16 rifle.

"There is a theory that they used vacuum tubes to protect against EMP pulses."

After finding out they used a stopwatch mounted to the analog instrument panel on the Soyuz to time retro rocket and re-entry engine firings, surely, someone gives them far too much credit for something that would have been a dumb luck discovery. Just because the tubes were in the systems, does not say that all systems were tube based.

BEIRUT, Lebanon  Turkey sharply escalated its confrontation with Syria on Wednesday, forcing a Syrian passenger plane to land in Ankara on suspicion of carrying military cargo, ordering Turkish civilian airplanes to stay out of Syrian airspace and warning of increasingly forceful responses if Syrian artillery gunners keep lobbing shells across the border.

Turkeys NTV television said Turkish warplanes were dispatched to intercept a Syrian A-320 Airbus jetliner with 35 passengers en route from Moscow to Damascus, and force it to land at Esenboga Airport in Ankara, because it may have been carrying a weapons shipment to the Syrian government.

We forced the plane to land in order to inspect its cargo, the foreign minister, Ahmed Davutoglu, told NTV.

Also fascinating to see the waves on waves of complexity unfolding across the middle east. Anyone who wants to stay abreast really has to do their research. Issues: Sunni vs Shia, Al Qaeda and Salafis, multiple small groups with varying degrees of national and international scope and goals, numerous groups in each country which may disagree with each other. Iran has at least 4 major power blocs, Egypt also has at least 4, Libya has around 5 separate militia orientations. Then we have Sudan, Tunisia, Somalia, Jordan, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan all in various stages of ferment and instability. Anyone trying to make blanket statements about what is going on there, or who has the facts treads dangerous ground. One of the best things Rumsfeld said is that one about knowns and unknowns. Here we have a whole lot of “unknown unknowns” as well as all the “known unknowns.”

During the Cold War a type of Soviet sonar buoy washed up on a U.S. beach and someone turned it over to authorities. When it was discected they found the computer component came from an off-the shelf Nintendo game.

46
posted on 10/10/2012 2:27:40 PM PDT
by Brad from Tennessee
(A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)

I think that variant of MIG was powered by a rocket engine that had to be changed out fairly regularly because it degraded quickly from the heat it produced. The plane was an interceptor that needed power over other qualities.

48
posted on 10/10/2012 2:40:44 PM PDT
by Brad from Tennessee
(A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)

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